Tag Archives: literacy

The Cooney Center’s new initiative matters for kids and teachers Early in my education career, I taught ninth-grade English in a small public high school. My vivacious, curious students came from all over San Francisco for our school’s strong community, youth leadership focus, and promise of college readiness. I was an enthusiastic and capable young teacher, excited to read and discuss compelling books with students and to coach them to find their voice and clarify their ideas through writing. My…

Generative AI is here to stay—so how can we help children understand what it is and how to use it responsibly? On March 3, 2025, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center was thrilled to participate in a panel at SXSW EDU exploring how AI can enhance, rather than replace, the student-teacher relationship. Moderator Lisa Guernsey, Director of the Learning Sciences Exchange at New America, opened the conversation by highlighting AI’s potential to reshape literacy and computational thinking. She emphasized that AI-powered…

Although we are still in the midst of discovering the implications and opportunities that various technologies bring to our children’s (and our own) lives, we’re seeing a new technological innovation getting a lot of attention: artificial intelligence (or AI) – and specifically Generative AI. AI is something you’re likely already using in your daily life. If you’ve ever unlocked your phone with facial recognition, spoken to a voice assistant like Siri or Alexa, or relied on a navigation app like…

A new report from SRI Education describes the quality of educational YouTube videos for prekindergarten- and kindergarten-age children. Findings point to surprising differences from educational television shows, including less use of characters and plot to help kids learn. Many parents question the quality of YouTube video content. So do researchers. According to the 2020 Common Sense Media Census, children are spending more time watching videos online than in any other format. Streaming sites like YouTube have surpassed even television viewing.…

According to NAEP only 14% of U.S. students reported reading for fun almost every day in 2023 – 13 percentage points lower than 2012 – and average reading scores have declined for most sub-groups of 8th graders since 2020. Tackling this crisis in reading requires a multi-pronged approach to understand and address the challenges. The Advanced Education Research & Development Fund (AERDF) initiative Reading Reimagined has embarked on this work, in particular through funding research on how older children (ages…

Carly Shuler authored several reports, including D is for Digital, Pockets of Potential, and  Learning: Is there an app for that? during her time with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center from 2007-2012.   The Cooney Center didn’t just play a role in shaping my career—the term isn’t strong enough. The Cooney Center incubated my career. My company. The 50 people who work for Hoot, the 900 teachers in our teacher network, and the thousands of kids we work with. Our impact…

Children’s literature is not known for its diversity—either in terms of diverse characters within books, diverse authors and illustrators, or diverse staff within the publishing industry. Nancy Larrick’s famous article, “The All White World of Children’s Books,” was published in 1965, and sadly, the situation is not that different today. Yet those responsible for putting books in the hands of children know how important it is that books for young people provide what Rudine Sims Bishop calls “mirrors, windows, and…

If you happened to be visiting Independence National Historical Park in late October, you might have seen some of us educators and park rangers walking around with cell phones and taking pictures of things not normally featured on the postcards sold in the Park’s gift store. In addition to the Liberty Bell and the Mall, these photos included steam coming out of manhole covers, late budding plants growing along the parks’ edges, sidewalk patterns made of river stones, bricks and…

This guest post summarizes a research paper discussing how Latino children collaboratively search the internet with their adult family members to solve family needs. The research for this project began while Jason Yip was a Research Fellow at the Cooney Center in 2013-14, and has just been presented at the ACM Computer Supported Collaborative Work Conference on November 5th. Read the paper here. Searching for online information is not equitable. People search online to find recipes and to plan trips, but also to find…

It’s August. August? How did that happen? We are facing a new school year, which as a parent of a 6- and 8-year-old I am simultaneously saddened about (where has the time gone?) and relieved by (these kids need to get back to school!). As the end of summer approaches, it’s time to start thinking about preparing for school. Are the kids ready? Not just in terms of getting their stuff ready (school supplies, anyone?), but also emotionally and academically.…